I haven't got a Scooby Doo who any of these people are, and to be honest I really wouldn't overcomplicate this.

The crux of what I am saying is basically this: there are 1.7-1.8bn Muslims. Half of these are women. The Muslim population as a whole tends to skew younger, at least for the next generation or so. They also tend to place stress on family values. Furthermore, Islam is one of only two major world religions to have many tens of millions of followers in Europe and Eurasia. (The same cannot be said for Hinduism, Buddhism or Judaism, to take but three examples.)

Given these facts, you would have to be crazy not to at least consider being with a Muslim woman if what you are in the market for is a serious relationship, and you like the aesthetics of European or oriental-European women. If that's not your thing - for whatever reason - then that is absolutely fine, but to discount it out of hand because of what some anti-Islam (and anti-Christian) fanatics with a vested interest in keeping you compliant (and therefore ignorant) so that they can keep their resource wars ticking over is not really defensible from a rational point of view.

It's not only about Muslims, to be fair. Unfortunately some Hindu are also starting with idiotic religious ideology/blasphemy...

This Hindu politician should be immediately arrested.
Bollywood-film-faces-attacks-from-hindu-groups.html

<quote>

Indian politician offers $1.5M for beheading of Bollywood star over Hindu queen, Muslim ruler romance film

Deepika Padukone, right, and director Sanjay Leela Bhansali attend the opening of the 13th annual Marrakech International Film Festival.

A member of India's Hindu nationalist ruling party offered a $1.5 million bounty Sunday for anyone who beheads the lead actress and the director of a yet-to-be released Bollywood film that's sparked controversy for depicting a romance between a Hindu queen and Muslim ruler.

The film "Padmavati" was set to be in theaters on Dec. 1 and has caused a firestorm over its alleged handling of the relationship.

Suraj Pal Amu, a Bharatiya Janata Party leader from the northern state of Haryana, offered the bounty against actress Deepika Padukone and filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali.The film's producers postponed the release of the movie the same day.

Speaking at a public rally, Amu also said the film would not be allowed to be released at all, local media reported.

The movie "Padmavati" is based on a 16th century Sufi epic poem, "Padmavat," a fictional account of a brave and beautiful Rajput queen who chose to kill herself rather than be captured by the Muslim sultan of Delhi, Allaudin Khilji. Over the centuries, the tale has come to be seen as history, even though there is little historical evidence to support it.

Padukone plays the role in the film of Padmini, the legendary queen who committed "jauhar," the medieval Rajput practice in which women of royal households walked into funeral fires to embrace death over the dishonor of being taken captive.

The film has been in trouble since the beginning of the year, with fringe groups in the western state of Rajasthan attacking the film's set, threatening to burn down theaters that show it and even physically attacking Bhansali in January.

Most of the anger at the film appears to stem from allegations that Bhansali distorted history by filming a romantic dream sequence between the film's main protagonists. Bhansali has denied the allegations.

Earlier this month, the head of the Rajput Karni Sena in Rajasthan said Padukone should have her nose cut — a symbol of public humiliation — for being part of a film that allegedly insulted the famed queen.

On Monday, local government officials vowed to take "stringent action" against those threatening Padukone and others involved in the movie, The Indian Express reported.

India's 1.3 billion-strong democracy is the largest in the world, but despite significant economic progress over the last few decades its politics are held hostage by a complex mix of religion and caste. Books and movies have found themselves at the receiving end of threats of violence and bans because they either offend one religious or caste group, or are deemed offensive to Indian culture in general.

Members of India's Rajput community shout slogans as they protest against the release of Bollywood film "Padmavati" in Mumbai, India, Monday, Nov. 20, 2017. The film has been in trouble since the beginning of the year, with fringe groups in the western state of Rajasthan attacking the film's set, threatening to burn down theaters that show it and even physically attacking the director in January. A member of India's Hindu nationalist ruling party has offered a 100 million rupee ($1.5 million) reward to anyone who beheads the lead actress and the director of the yet-to-be released film over its alleged handling of the relationship between a Hindu queen and a Muslim ruler.

Members of India's Rajput community shout slogans as they protest against the release of Bollywood film "Padmavati" in Mumbai. (AP)
In the past, India's film censor board rejected the erotic drama "Fifty Shades of Grey," and Hollywood movies that appear on Indian screens are routinely scrubbed of sex scenes. "The Da Vinci Code" was banned in the Indian state of Goa, which has a large Christian population, because religious groups objected.

On Monday, India's Supreme Court refused to ban the controversial film, saying it is not inclined in the matter and the fate of the film needs to be decided by the country's censor board, India Today reported.

In its decision, the court said: "The censor board has a role and the Supreme Court cannot assume that role. Why should the court interfere to stop the release of a movie which has not been cleared by the censor board?"

In 2014, the publishing house Penguin India pulled from shelves and destroyed all copies of American historian Wendy Doniger's "The Hindus: An Alternative History" after protests and a lawsuit from a Hindu right-wing group. The group's main objection was that the book described Hindu mythological texts as fictional.

India-born writer Salman Rushdie's book "The Satanic Verses" has been banned here since 1998, since many Muslims consider it blasphemous. Rushdie was forced to cancel a 2012 appearance at the Jaipur Literary Festival amid protests and threats by prominent Muslim clerics.
</quote>

Last edited by Yohan on November 24th, 2017, 5:06 am, edited 2 times in total.

Only these 4 countries are by far larger than little Bosnia in Europe with about 2 million followers of Islam.

Firstly, it's not just Bosnia which has a significant number of Muslims in Europe and Eurasia: there is a vast belt of countries stretching from Albania to the Chinese border, and most of them fall into this category.

Secondly, highlighting Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan or Yemen is like picking DR Congo, Honduras or Equatorial Guinea as being typical of the Christian world. None of these countries are particularly stable and/or sane, and more to the point, they are not representative.

Even if you check out the more stable bits of the Arab world, there are some seriously beautiful women there.

It's not only about Muslims, to be fair. Unfortunately some Hindu are also starting with idiotic religious ideology/blasphemy...

It's everyone. In all honesty, no one is behaving particularly well these days. That said, the smart people will recognise when one group is being singled out as a sign that there is seriously money/power/resources at stake.

... highlighting Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan or Yemen is like picking DR Congo, Honduras or Equatorial Guinea as being typical of the Christian world. None of these countries are particularly stable and/or sane, and more to the point, they are not representative.

Nobody will claim that Congo, Honduras, Equatorial Guinea are representative for Christianity.

If you mention Philippines, Argentine, Bulgaria, South Africa, for Christianity, I will agree...

I was choosing Saudi Arabia (Wahabi) and Yemen (50/50 Sunni/Shia), Afganistan (Sunni), Iran (Shia), because they are well-known for Islam.

If these four Islamic countries are not representative for Islam, I wonder which countries are representative? Brunei, Pakistan, Sudan?

... highlighting Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan or Yemen is like picking DR Congo, Honduras or Equatorial Guinea as being typical of the Christian world. None of these countries are particularly stable and/or sane, and more to the point, they are not representative.

Nobody will claim that Congo, Honduras, Equatorial Guinea are representative for Christianity.

If you mention Philippines, Argentine, Bulgaria, South Africa, for Christianity, I will agree...

I was choosing Saudi Arabia (Wahabi) and Yemen (50/50 Sunni/Shia), Afganistan (Sunni), Iran (Shia), because they are well-known for Islam.

If these four Islamic countries are not representative for Islam, I wonder which countries are representative? Brunei, Pakistan, Sudan?

A representative Muslim-majority country would be numerically dominated by the numerically dominant religiously orthodox opinions. That therefore excludes countries like Saudi Arabia and its client states. It also excludes Iran, which as of the early 1980s is the world's only Shiite revolutionary regime.

Pakistan is not a great example either because: (i) it is the only country with its unique hybrid pseudo-secular, pseudo-Islamic system which they themselves haven't properly defined or worked out; and (ii) it is historically speaking a brand-new country which did not even exist until 1948. It might not even exist in 25 years' time.

Brunei is a tiny oil-rich statelet. Difficult to generalise much from those.

Sudan is a failing state which literally split apart just a few years ago. Again, highly unusual. Most countries are not in this position.

Alternatively:

1. Jordan is the centre of Islamic orthodoxy in the Levant;

2. Turkey is the nation which is investing the most in terms of high-level Islamic scholarship; and

3. Morocco is regarded by many as a country which has preserved its valuable spiritual traditions the most or amongst the most, although it is also quite corrupt.

Of course, these types of list would change over time. And even now, some people would put India and Indonesia higher up within this categorisation.

Egypt carries out air strikes targeting Islamic extremists near mosque where 235 worshippers - including children in a creche - were slaughtered in gun and bomb attack during prayers
More than 200 people killed after gun and bomb attack at Egyptian mosque
The mosque was packed for Friday prayers when the gunmen began their attack
At least 130 are also reported to have been injured as medics rush to the scene
Some reports suggest terrorists shot down survivors who fled the initial bomb
President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi vowed to respond with 'brutal force' to the attack

Radical Islamist militants converted the Al Rawdah Mosque in the town Bir al-Abd in Egypt’s northern Sinai peninsula from a scene of prayer to a slaughterhouse on Friday. Jihadis detonated an explosive device and shot worshippers dead as they left the compound, which the gunmen had surrounded. In all, at least 235 people were left dead and 130 injured, according to state media.

No group had claimed responsibility as of Friday morning, but the region has been plagued with a Sunni insurgency against Egyptian security forces, Christians and pilgrims for years. But why did Muslims take aim at their fellow Muslims on the holiest day of the week in what was the deadliest extremist attack in Egyptian history?

The beliefs of those inside the mosque, and those laying siege to it, hold the clues.

The mosque, located some 40 kilometers west of the provincial capital of El Arish, is frequented by Sufi Muslim worshippers, according to Al-Arabiya news channel and local sources speaking to Reuters.

The Islamic State militant group (ISIS), which has established a local affiliate in the region, known as the Sinai Province, is the main suspect in the deadliest attack on Egyptian soil since the group’s downing of a Russian jet in October 2015 that killed all 224 people on board.

And for hardline Salafis, Muslims who follow an ultraconservative, evangelical brand of Islam and whose followers include many ISIS jihadis, Sufi Muslims are heretics.

Sufi Islam is a mystical branch of the religion that worships saints and shrines, behavior that ISIS considers to be idolatrous. In the same way that the group’s brutal jihadis view Egypt’s Coptic Christian community with hate, and revile the Shiites of Iran and Iraq, they detest the Sufi branch of Islam.

The Sinai peninsula is home to both ultraconservative Sunni Muslims and Sufi Muslims, bringing both sects of Islam together, and leaving the Sufis vulnerable to targeted attacks.

ISIS has pinpointed the Sinai’s Sufi population regularly in the past, including their grisly beheading of a top Sufi cleric in the region, Sheikh Suleiman Abu Heraz.

Elsewhere in South Asia and Middle East, ISIS has attacked Sufis, their mosques, their shrines and their gatherings. In 2014, they destroyed several Sufi Muslim shrines and tombs in the eastern Syrian province of Deir Ezzor.

In February, an ISIS suicide bomber attacked one of the most revered Sufi shrines in the world, Sehwan Sharif, located in the southern Sindh Province of Pakistan, killing 80 people and wounding more than 250.

Pakistan may be the country where Sufi Muslims have been most frequently targeted, by radical Islamists not only aligned to ISIS but also to the Pakistani Taliban. Attacks include the 2010 bombing of the tomb of Data Ganj Bakhsh, a shooting at the shrine of a Sufi saint in Karachi, and the assassination of Sufi singer Amjad Sabri last year.

Sufism’s followers pledge allegiance to this mystical strand of Islam because they believe it can offer them proximity to God. For jihadis, however, Sufi followers deviate from the prescribed religious path of Islam, particularly with their veneration of tombs.

That distinction ultimately means that wherever Sufis remain in the Middle East, the sect will remain at risk from bloody massacres like the one witnessed in the town of Bir al-Abd on Friday.